This week, both the House of Representatives and the Senate took up legislation to get construction going on the Keystone XL Pipeline. In both chambers, the bill gained significant bipartisan support despite a disappointing veto threat from President Obama. With my support, the House voted in favor of beginning the project. Sadly, the Senate fell only one vote short of overcoming a filibuster.

The House has shown strong support for the Keystone XL pipeline and has worked in a bipartisan manner to advance construction of the project.  The pipeline will create thousands of new jobs at a time when our country’s labor participation rate is at a historic low and cheaper energy prices for American families struggling in this tepid economic recovery.

At some point, President Obama has to realize that blocking the Keystone XL pipeline is forcing American consumers to depend on volatile oil-rich regimes and is hurting our diplomatic relationship with our top trading partner - Canada. Canada’s abundant natural resources will be put to use; the question is who will benefit – American consumers or our economic competitors?  U.S. refineries are cleaner, too. After the State Department released its report demonstrating that the pipeline’s construction and operation is environmentally safe, President Obama lost his major argument against Keystone XL. Unfortunately, the President and his allies have not been moved by the facts.

Jobs and the economy will continue to be one of my top priorities as I represent you. There are still far too many Americans seeking full-time work while stuck in part-time jobs and families struggling to pay the bills, and I'll keep fighting to fix that.

I hope your family has a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the fun, food, and football!

Sincerely,

Representative Ed Royce

I was honored that my colleagues selected me to continue serving as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the next Congress.

Over the last two years, our nation has faced continuous, serious threats from across the globe, including ISIL, Russia and North Korea. Unfortunately, many of these threats have been met with a confused and often passive Obama Administration foreign policy. From combating the long-term threat posed by ISIL and other terrorists, to countering the influence of false news and destructive ideas overseas, to conducting rigorous oversight of this Administration, the Committee has been working diligently to make our nation more secure and prosperous. But much work remains. The Committee will continue its efforts to stop Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons, which threatens to undermine fundamentally the security of us and our critical allies.
  
The Committee will also continue to promote U.S. economic engagement worldwide, particularly in Asia, where economies are continually growing. I look forward to working with all members of the Committee to meet the many challenges and seize the many opportunities in front of our great nation.

Reports of unburied veterans’ bodies at the Los Angeles County mortuary are deeply unsettling and these travesties are the result of burial procedure loopholes at the VA. Earlier this year, I introduced the "Veterans Dignified Burial Act" to address the issue.

The bill will ensure the VA follows up on pending burials 30 days after a recently deceased person has been confirmed as a veteran, so that we know he or she is treated with both dignity and respect. Just yesterday, my colleague Senator Dean Heller of Nevada introduced this legislation in the U.S. Senate, bringing it one step closer to becoming a law.

While the quality of the healthcare that veterans receive has been in the news lately, our veterans deserve the same attention when it comes to their burials.